A Guide To MEDDPICC

Ever heard of MEDDPICC? This acronym could be your secret to boosting your sales process and closing more deals. 

It’s a sales methodology that B2B sales management can use to enhance lead scoring and get the buyer to their final decision faster. When properly implemented, it can strengthen any sales pitch and add strong competitive advantages to sales training. 

Let’s break down everything you need to know about implementing MEDDPICC into your sales process. 

Table of contents:

• What is MEDDPICC?
• Examples of MEDDPICC Questions
• How to Implement MEDDPICC
• Why and How to Reinforce MEDDPICC
• Go Win More Deals

‍

What Is MEDDPICC?

MEDDPICC is a sales qualification methodology, designed to help sales teams qualify and close deals faster and more efficiently. 

‍

MEDDPICC stands for:

• M: Metrics
• E: Economic Buyer
• D: Decision Criteria
• D: Decision Process
• P: Paper Process
• I: Implicate the pain
• C: Champion
• C: Competition

Using each element of MEDDPICC in the sales process is a proven way for any sales team to enhance the prospect’s decision-making process, speed up the sales cycle, and close more deals. 

‍

Examples Of MEDDPICC Questions

When you break down the MEDDPICC sales process, each element (letter) involves a few important questions. 

Metrics

Metrics refer to quantifiable value measurements that your solution offers. Here are some key questions to consider here:

• How should we measure the success of our project?
• How is success measured by the business?
• Which metrics around cost, efficiency, or business do we need to achieve?
• What are the business/technical/financial implications if the project is not completed?

Economic Buyer

Understand and engage with the economic buyer early on, as this is the buyer role that holds the authority in the buying decision. Here are some questions to connect with the economic buyer: 

• If we end up aligning to meet your technical and business requirements, is there someone else we would need to involve from a business perspective to get approval? If so, who?
• Do you sponsor the project?
• Who else should we get involved with?
• Is this a management mandate or is this a project you are searching for on your own?

Decision Criteria

This refers to how a purchase decision for your solution will be judged. Understand these questions to enhance decision criteria:

• From a technical perspective, do you have requirements outlining what success looks like? Is there an RFP? Can you share it?
• We've been supporting a lot of similar types of customers. Would it be helpful to send over a list of requirements we typically see when customers are evaluating our type of solution?

Decision Process

This covers the steps a buyer will take from evaluating your solution to making a decision. Sales professionals can enhance this process with these questions:

• The last time you purchased software, what was the process you went through?
• Assuming we are aligned on the technical side of things, can we walk through what the legal, security, and procurement process looks like?
• Is anyone in that process you just outlined going on vacation toward the end of the quarter?

Paper Process

The paper process refers to the steps in the buying process that need to be followed after the purchase decision. Speed it up with these questions:

• What paperwork is required to make a purchase?
• Are there any purchasing committees or review boards?
• Who is involved in the process and how long does it take?

Implicate The Pain

Identify pain points and implicate how your solution solves them. Ask these questions to establish this:

• Can we walk through what you're trying to accomplish with this solution? Why is this important to your business?
• What is causing the issues that you've outlined that are forcing you to look for a solution?
• If you were not able to solve this issue, what are the consequences of doing nothing? How does it impact your business?

Champion

This is the person who has power and credibility with the buyer’s organization. Ask them:

• The last time you purchased software, what was the evaluation and approval process like?

Competition

This refers to anyone you’re competing against for this sale. Ask these questions to gain a competitive advantage:

• Have you looked at other solutions before? Why did you not move forward with them?
• Who are we competing against?
• Is building your own an option? Why or why not?

‍

How To Implement MEDDPICC

Implementing the MEDDPICC sales qualification framework helps sellers focus on the deals that are most likely to close, while giving buyers an objective way to measure if the business impact of the solution would be appropriate for their business. For managers, it improves forecast accuracy and increases communication with their team by creating a consistent way to evaluate deals.

To introduce this process to sales teams, you need to incorporate it into your sales rep training. Teach them how to use it and explain the value of this process for qualifying which deals they should focus more on. 

In addition, build out fields in your Salesforce that align to MEDDPICC and add a numeric value associated with each letter. Doing this forces sales reps to complete the fields and use the MEDDPICC methodology. 

Using a numeric value also allows for more effective analysis by sales reps and sales leaders. They can then use this data on forecast calls. For example, a low score and a close date in two weeks means the deal is high risk. A high score with a close date in two weeks is an expected success so focus your attention here.

A Simple Example Of Scoring In Your CRM

Applying the right lead scoring process for the MEDDPICC methodology will make it a lot easier to implement this process effectively. Here are some scoring options for each element of MEDDPICC:

Metrics:

0: none found

1: found / not significant value

2: found and significant value

Economic Buyer:

0: not identified

1: identified, but no access

2: identified and confirmed budget

Decision Criteria:

0: no decision criteria

1: understand the decision criteria

2: understand and favorable to [your company name]

Decision Process:

0: you don't understand the decision process

1: understand but has not started

2: understand and has started

Proposal:

0: not found

1: delivered, no feedback

2: delivered, approved

Identify Initiatives / Pain:

0: no initiative, you are the only one with urgency

1: there is an initiative, but no urgency

2: initiative and urgency linking to purchase

Champion:

0: not identified a champion

1: identified champion, but not tested them

2: identified and tested

‍

Why And How To Reinforce MEDDPICC

MEDDPICC is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle.

Reinforcing MEDDPICC is critical as it’s common for reps to otherwise fall back to their old habits. Even for experienced users of MEDDPICC, reinforcement keeps it in the front of their mind for greater engagement.

Find a tool that can seamlessly reinforce MEDDPICC into the seller's workflow. Aircover is an option that can serve up MEDDPICC to you on every customer, and then automatically capture notes around each letter and send it to your CRM.
This type of daily reinforcement has many benefits, including:

• Get more ROI out of existing MEDDPICC trainings
• Decrease the number of trainings needed, leading to more on closing activities (what reps want) 
• Improve sales ramp time of the framework
• Just-in-time learning that align with the way reps want to consume enablement

Another idea is to put together regular success stories of customer wins using the framework. These should map each step of the sales journey to the different letters of MEDDPICC. Your reps can learn from these practical examples and gain a better understanding of the methodology. 

‍

Go Win More Deals

Applying the MEDDPICC qualification framework to the different stages of the sales process will help you boost your win rates. It’s all about getting the right information from your potential buyer and using this to make sure your solution aligns with their needs. 

Get it right, and you’ll be providing a better buyer experience, while increasing your conversion by spending your time on the deals most likely to close.